Atherton fast lines - a mistake to remove them and possible reinstatement

[adamedwards]

One thing to bear in mind for Skelmersdale is the station will be a terminus, so it will be cross platform rather than along the platform interchange. I would think this will be a big success in both directions as you have a large town finally getting a good railway. Forget the through trains to Liverpool, this is the key project.

 

[daodao]

Can I commend Bob Pixton's book "Liverpool Manchester Volume Three" ISBN 978 1 905505 07 4 for an illustrated journey over the former Atherton fast lines. The Liverpool to Manchester corridor was the Eldorado of rail markets combining the Port of Liverpool, the manufacturing megaliths of Lancashire and the West Riding and as a bonus the South Lancashire coalfield. In the laissez faire competition of the pre -grouping period - the London and North Western, the Lancashire and Yorkshire and the Cheshire Lines Committee (a combination of the Midland and what became the Great Central Railway); filled their shareholders' boots. Not so much duplication as triplication. With the decline of of the textile and the mines culminating in a final collapse in the 1960's and 70s - rationalisation was the order of the day and the Atherton fast lines built to bypass Bolton were one of the first casualties. Doctor Beeching saw duplication of routes as low hanging fruit. What then happened fifty years later is that the remaining rail infrastructure has revived and we are bumping up against capacity constraints again. The avoiding lines to Pemberton to the south and west of Wigan have in part recently been converted into a road.

Could the Atherton fast lines be relaid? Yes but not without difficulty. Track maintenance has moved from manual to automated processes - ballast layers tend to be thicker and tracks under bridges have been slewed to maintain clearances; cable routes are now buried. Moving to a three track formation could well be simpler than re-quadrification - especially if the existing slow lines are converted to Metrolink Metro. The third line if built and signalled as a reversible route could serve an emergency relief and/or freight line. The key rebuild would be a split level station at Salford Crescent removing the two conflicting junctions. This has been alluded to in recent proposals to ameliorate the Castlefield Corridor.

The pre-WW1 train service between Manchester and Liverpool was excellent (Sundays excepted) with regular clockface hourly services via all 3 main lines; it only took 40 minutes from M/c Victoria to Lpl Exchange. It is only since the re-introduction of regular hourly fast services via the Chat Moss route a few years ago with the rerouting of the LNW line Transpennine services back to their original route that the Manchester-Liverpool service has improved over that offered in 1910.

 

[edwin_m]

The M60 and several adjacent roads cross the Atherton line on multiple bridges, all of which were built for two tracks only.

 

[mwmbwls]

One thing to bear in mind for Skelmersdale is the station will be a terminus, so it will be cross platform rather than along the platform interchange. I would think this will be a big success in both directions as you have a large town finally getting a good railway. Forget the through trains to Liverpool, this is the key project.

https://live.staticflickr.com/8885/18371607949_decec71630_c.jpgSkelmersdale and Its Railway Lecture Slides by Mwmbwls, on Flickr


I don't buy this -" the connection at Kirkby is not a big thing". Physically it is a short walk under a bridge but the meshing of four trains an hour terminating from Liverpool and one train from Manchester means extended journey times for northbound passengers on the three of four trains whose do not have a short connection. In bad weather it's bleak.
This a slide from a lecture I prepared for a Lancashire Library Lecture on restoring railway links to Skelmersdale. In terms of new town development, Skem fell between the stools concerning railway development being part of West Lancashire ( Lancashire County Council) with a boundaries either side of UpHolland Tunnel with Knowsley to the west and Wigan to the east. For a long time it was nobody's child. T B Maund in his book "Merseyrail Electrics" ISBN 0 9539531896 1 3 describes how the Kirkby electrification was built down to a budget - it was originally proposed to run to Wigan but in the end could only run to Kirkby. In 1973 a national economic crisis resulted in dramatic cost cuts. In the end a single track section from Fazackerley Junction over the M58 was built to Kirkby. In a similar manner to Meols Cop, Rainford became an orphan station. Part of Merseyside PTE but in name only. It took a forty year campaign to get rails to Skelmersdale back on track. In journey to work terms Skem faces both ways - there considerable commuter flows to both Wigan and Manchester and to Liverpool - but they are overwhelmingly made by car. The key determinant of modal choice is Journey to Work time and as long as it took less time to reach work than by train. However over the years, motorway congestion has made such journeys to work less reliable.
There is also significant pressure in West Lancashire and Knowsley to increase housing in the area the section north of the A580 - with a journey time to Liverpool of 32 minutes from Skem and 24 minutes from Rainford - and average door to door commute time of 1 hour the Liverpool CBD can be accessed. Rainford station is poorly located. with little parking and a move to re-build the station where it crosses the A570 would be useful. Skem station will be situated south of the Police Station near the Concord centre on the site of a former school. Local plans have long been frustrated by the lack of a viable rail link.

 

[Ianno87]

Admittedly, Kirkby is not the nicest station for an extended wait. A slightly improved station (either there or at Skelmersdale) combined with an increase to 2tph onward to Wigan would improve matters.

Most connecting passengers won't get a "random" Merseyrail train - they'll get the one that connects (or maybe the one previous)

 

[Bletchleyite]

https://live.staticflickr.com/8885/18371607949_decec71630_c.jpgSkelmersdale and Its Railway Lecture Slides by Mwmbwls, on Flickr

I don't buy this -" the connection at Kirkby is not a big thing". Physically it is a short walk under a bridge but the meshing of four trains an hour terminating from Liverpool and one train from Manchester means extended journey times for northbound passengers on the three of four trains whose do not have a short connection. In bad weather it's bleak.

For hardly any passengers. The main Liverpool-Wigan service is from Lime St, and this is what most people will use; from Ormskirk you could go via Preston or probably more sensibly on the bus. From Merseyrail north of Walton it isn't quicker for Manchester than via Lime St. You're basically talking demand from people who live at Kirkdale (any further south and you'd go to Lime St), Rice Lane/Walton and Fazakerley, plus to Liverpool from Rainford, Orrell and Pemberton. It's literally hardly anybody. If it didn't exist, you wouldn't build it now.

Skem would give the line a purpose (and potentially do a considerable amount for regeneration of the town) - as things stand it has hardly any purpose at all.